Meets at 6pm on the last Wednesday of every month at Microsoft, North Ryde

Welcome to the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG).
We meet on the last Wednesday of every month.

When: Our next meeting is on Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 6:00pm.
Where: Microsoft, North Ryde (scroll down for map).

Agenda for our 24 February 2010 meeting (RSVP here)

WordPress for Business

We’ll be taking an in-depth look at WordPress for business.

Five expert speakers will cover the following aspects of using WordPress in your business:

• WordPress as a CMS – including customisation and integration with other platforms
• WordPress for Blogging – how to maximise the blogging aspects
• WordPress SEO – covering the core SEO activities to ensure your site is optimised
• WordPress hosting – recommendations for the best and easiest ways to host
• WordPress customisation – tips, tricks and gotchas, including themes and styling

We’ll also be covering the top WordPress Plug-ins – a rundown of the most useful plugins to use in WordPress, tips, tricks and gotchas, plus an opportunity to network with WordPress experts.

Here’s the agenda for the night:

5:45pm – Doors open
6:00pm – Welcome and Intro (Craig Bailey)
6:15pm – Tech News (Nick Rayner)
6:30pm – Intro to WordPress for Business (Craig Bailey)
6:50pm – eCommerce in WordPress (Tony Cosentino)
7:15pm – WordPress Performance (Jeff Waugh)
7:35pm – Pizza break + networking
8:00pm – WordPress Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) (Kristin Rohan & Craig Bailey)
8:20pm – WordPress in Business case study (Steve Wilson)
8:35pm – WordPress Customisation (Jodie Miners)
8:50pm – Massive Q+A Panel session (with all speakers)
9:15pm – Finish – feel free to hang around and network

Plus, I’m hoping to have a specialist from Microsoft cover the new Microsoft Azure hosting options for WordPress as well (TBC).

Most of the sessions will include a case study of a business site based on WordPress, plus details of recommended plugins, hosting and themes. We’ll also be highlighting WordPress resources you can use, tips & tricks and potential issues to be avoided.

Who Should Come?

This night is ideal for people looking to investigate the functionality of WordPress and determine if it is a good fit for their business. Many companies are running their entire business on WordPress these days – due to its simplicity, extensibility, flexibility to customise & style, CMS and blogging functionality, as well as its search engine optimisation features.

This is also an ideal event to meet WordPress experts – if you need help getting your site up and running on WordPress, this night will be perfect. You’ll meet some of Sydney’s best WordPress developers.

This will be a very popular night – please click here to RSVP and confirm your place.

Cost

$10 Donation (to cover the cost of pizza and drinks)
Plus we ask you to hand out your business cards :-)

Where

The Sydney Business & Technology User Group (a.k.a. SBTUG pronounced es-bee-tugh) meets at Microsoft headquarters:

6:00pm – 9:00pm
Microsoft Sydney Office
Theatre 2
1 Epping Road
North Ryde NSW 2113

(See the Red Circle on the map below)

View this map on Multimap.com | Get directions on Multimap.com

Note – if you come after 6:00pm you may need to call Craig on 0413 489 388 to let you in – the number to call will also be on a notice at the door.

Contact

Want to be reminded about upcoming meetings?

The simplest way is to enter your email at the top right of this page and Submit. We’ll email you a reminder a few days before each meeting.

For details of upcoming meetings or general questions please contact Craig Bailey (UG President).
Want to speak at SBTUG? We’re always looking for great presentations – we’d love to hear from you.